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Idyls of the Missions 

Franciscan Dynasty 
California 
1769-1833 



A BROCHURE 

BY 

CLARICE GARLAND 

Author of Ysabella; or. The International Marriage 



Copyright 1917 
All rights reserved by the Author 



GEO. W. MOYLE PUBLISHING CO. 

337 East Third Street 

Long Beach, Cal. 



. Q, z ?. 



/ 


SEP 24 1917 


©C!A478()65 


'VT/^ 1 . 



Idyls of the Missions 

In The 

Reign ol the Franciscan Dynasty 

Over 21 ^Missions on the King's Highway 

700 Miles of Spanish California 

1769-1833. 



CONTENTS 

ESTABLISHMENT AND PROSPEEITY OF THE 
CALIFORNIA MISSIONS. 



The Act of Secularization, or the Cause of the Decline and 
Ruin of the California Missions. 



A Soldier of the Cross — 1769.Mission San Diego de Aleala. 

A Wedding .Journey — 1830. Mission San Luis Rey de Fran- 

cia. 

Bells of Capistrano — 1812. Mission San Juan Capistrano. 

Saint Gabriel — 1831. Mission San Gabriel Arcangel. 

The Wedding Bell Gift— 1831. Nuestra Seiiora Reina de Los 

Angeles. 

Winepress of Life — 1833. Mission San Fernando Rey de 

Espana. 

Pageant of the Night — 1833. Mission San Buenaventura. 

Spirit Sweet Waters — 1830. Mission Santa Barbara. 

Sentinel of Monterey — 1784. Mission San Carlos de Rio Car- 

melo. 



CALIFORNIA MISSIONS IN ORDER OF LO- 
CATION FROM SOUTH TO NORTH. 



Mission San Diego de Alcala, near San Diego (5m) 

founded 1769 

Mission Santa Ysabel, west San Diego (25m) founded 1822. 
Mission San Luis Eey de Francia, Oceanside, founded 1798. 
Parish Church San Antonio de Pala, Fallbrook (2m) 

founded : 1771 

Mission San Juan Capistrano, Capistrano founded 1775. 

Mission San Gabriel Areangel, Los Angeles (14m) 

founded 1771 

Parish Church, Senora Reina de los Angeles, Los Angeles 

founded 1781 

(Our Lady Queen of the Angels) 
Mission San Fernando Key De Espana, Fernando (2m) 

founded 1797 

(Saint Ferdinand, King of Spain) 

Mission San Buenaventura, Ventura, founded 1782 

Mission Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, founded 1786 

Mission La Purisima Concepcion, Lompoc (3m) founded 1787 

Mission Santa Ynez, Los Olivos, (12m) founded 1804 

Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, San Luis Obispo 

founded 1772 

(Saint Luis of Tolosa) 

Mission San Miguel, San Miguel, founded 1797 

(Saint Michael) 
Mission San Antonio de Padua, King City (26ra) found- 
ed 1771 

(Saint Anthony of Padua) 
Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad, Soledad (4m) 

founded 1791 

(Our Lady of the Solitude) 
Mission San Carlos de Rio Carmelo, Monterey (6m).... 1771 

(Saint Charles of the River Carmel) 
Parish Church, San Carlos Borromeo, Monterey (6m) 

founded 1770 

Mission San Juan Bautista, Sargent (6m) founded 1797 

(Saint John the Baptist) 

Mission Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, founded 1791 

Mission San Jose, Irvington (Im) founded 1797 

(Saint Joseph) 

Mission Santa Clara, Santa Clara, founded 1777 

Parish Church San Francisco D 'Assisi, San Francisco 

founded 1776 

(Saint Francis of Assisi) (Also known as Dolores) 

Mission San Rafael Areangel, San Rafael, founded 1817 

(Saint Raphael Areangel) 
Mission San Francisco Solano, Sonoma, founded 1823 



ESTABLISHMENT AND PROSPERITY OF 
THE CALIFORNIA MISSIONS. 



To those who view the ruins of the master-pieces of 
architecture, the California missions, they speak a 
various language. To the casual eye they speak of 
neglect and decay and the onlooker hastens away to 
modern, finished buildings suggesting present use and 
pleasure, having gratified a curiosity to see the poetic 
monuments of a past century. 

To the thoughtful eye the California missions, 
standing in august grandeur, speak of indomitable 
courage and exalted religious zeal of the architects, 
the Spanish missionaries, in hewing their way through 
a wilderness, enduring great hardships, traveling on 
foot five hundred miles from the beautiful bay they 
named San Diego to the splendid harbor they named 
San Francisco in honor of Saint Francis the Father 
of their Order. 

As the Franciscan monks reached spots favorable 
for founding a mission near an Indian village and 
fresh water, they raised the Cross and the banner of 
Spain, and among incredible difficulties, won Cali- 
fornia for Spain and eighty-five thousand Indians to 
Christianity in the twenty-one missions they estab- 
lislu'd and fostered for sixty years, located on the road 
they made and named El Camino Real (the King's 
Highway.) 

Tims the missionaries secured the territory of Up- 
per California and its fifty thousand savage inhabi- 
tants for the crown of Spain, a task which soldiers 
alone had failed to accomplish for centuries even at 
enormous cost, proving that love accomplished that 
which the sword failed to gain. The missionaries 
Avon the natives by kindness and forgiveness and 
taught them to venerate the Cross and love God and, 
by exercising strong control over their wards like ex- 
cellent schoolmaster, prevented such massacres as 
occurred east of the Colorado River. In this magni- 
ticient achievement the missionaries were not only 
messengers of the Gospel but captains of industry 
through Christianitv. Before the friars arrived, the 



land produced nothing save acorns and wild fruits. 
The Fathers brought seeds which they taught the 
Indians to plant in orchards, vineyards and fields 
which soon produced olive oil, oranges, grapes and 
grain while their animals increased to vast herds and 
flocks. With instruction in religion and agriculture 
the friars taught their wards arts and crafts and the 
sacred music of the Gregorian chants with voice, flute 
and violin. And many of the pueblos or towns, pre- 
sidios or forts, rivers and bays derived their names 
from the nearest missions. 

During sixty years the missionaries fed and clothed 
their Indian wards and the troops in the presidios 
of the whole territory to the value of half a million 
dollars annually. The civil and military authorities 
of California generally refused to lend moral as- 
sistance for transforming savages into faithful Christ- 
ians and industrious citizens. These otherwise would 
have been a thieving and savage menace to the white 
settlers of California. The friars had reared and 
made the missions prosperous and by their wise gov- 
ernment proved their ability to maintain them, over- 
coming obstacles of the guttural Indian language, 
their heathen orgies and ideas of a sensual heaven 
after death. 

From the year 1769 to 1833 the missionaries of- 
fered the only encouragement to a growing and profit- 
able commerce and aroused the interestf of the people 
of foreign countries thousands of leagues distant, who 
sailed to California to exchange hides, grain and tallow 
for manufactured goods from New England^ Old Eng- 
land and China, much needed in the territory by the 
missionaries and citizens and for clothing the neo- 
phytes or Christianized Indians, who previously ran 
about clothed in nature's raiment. And the mis- 
sionaries who induced, directed and controlled the 
wealth of the missions, having taken the vow of pover- 
ty, claimed no luxury for their own. 

The conquest, by the missionaries of the savage in- 
habitants of California, tells a story of heroism, men- 
tal and physical exertion, self-sacrifice, incessant 
prayer and undying love in the service of God as 
soldiers of the Cross. 



THE ACT OF SECULARIZATION, OR THE 

CAUSE OF THE DECLINE AND RUIN 

OF THE CALIFORNIA MISSIONS. 



In 1831 Governor Jose Maria Echandia sounded 
the deathknell of the missions in his famous procla- 
mations of secularization, or confiscation, of these es- 
tablishments. He claimed to follow the instructions 
of the Supreme Government in Mexico that sent him 
to California in 1825 for this purpose. Why he de- 
layed until his successor was already in the territory 
may have been owing to his disinclination for en- 
gaging the Reverend Fathers of undoubted education 
in the laws regarding the establishment and main- 
tenance of the missions and incumbents, in debate. 

"Senor Echandia knew how to unite and identify 
his position as comandante-general in the territory, 
even after it had terminated, with indefinite liberty 
and emancipation of the neophytes, but without pro- 
viding against the deplorable consequences which the 
whole territory experienced, the smaller of which was 
the ruin of the missions and the neophytes themselves. 

"In one of tlie nine articles of Echandia 's procla- 
mation of secularization was incorporated the law of 
^Mexico which decreed the expulsion of the Spanish 
missionaries of Upper California." 

Tliis act would give more freedom in confiscation. 

' ' In 1830 Presidente Bustanante of Mexico separat- 
ed the two Californias and appointed Lieutenant-Col- 
onel Manuel Victoria governor of Upper California. 

"Ex-Governor Echandia 's hypocrisy was shown 
when he issued his decree of secularization January 
six, 1831 at Monterey, long after his notification to 
turn his office over to his successor who was within 
the province. The bearer of the dispatch, turning 
San Gabriel into a town where hundreds of neophytes, 
or Christianized Indians, had built streets of adobe 
dwellings for their families near the mission, had to 
pass the real governor at Santa Barbara. This showed 
the desperate steps the ex-governor was prepared to 
take in order to accomplish his scheme of plundering 



the missions ; although Eehandia and his conspirators 
were blind to the damage whicli the decree would in- 
flict on the troops in the presidios. Comandante San- 
tiago Arguello of San Diego foresaw the disastrous ef- 
fect when he wrote to Eehandia that the status of 
San Gabriel must not be changed because the supplies 
which the missionaries furnished were absolutely 
necessary for the troops of San Diego." 

Enchandia's act of secularization never was enacted 
into a law ; for on the arrival of Governor Victoria 
in Monterey he immediately annulled Eehandia s de- 
cree ; and for a little time longer the missions were 
left undisturbed, until 1835 when Mexico passed the 
law of secularization of the California missions. 

"In truth the blood freezes and hairs stand on 
ends at the bare thought of the eternal memory which 
would remain in this land if Senor de Eehandia and 
the young Californians had obtained full control and 
confiscated the mission properties. Anarchy would 
have reigned as in Mexico," wrote Father Zephyrin 
Engelhardt, author of ]\Iissions and Missionaries of 
California. 

This eminent Spanish historian. Reverend Father 
Zephyrin Engelhardt, 0. F. M., Order of Franciscan 
]\Ionks, wrote that "The Americans came none too 
soon to prevent the final desecration of the missions." 
And it is interesting to note furthermore that he 
stated the following paragraphs: 

"There is observable an inborn reverence among 
the officers of the United States army and navy for 
houses of worship. Such atrocities, such profana- 
tions of churches and sacred vessels, such brutalities 
against priests and nuns as the Villistas and Car- 
ranzistas at present perpetrate in Mexico, would be 
impossible at the hands of officers and soldiers of the 
regular army with the approval of the government 
of the United States." 

Father Engelhardt further stated: "In February, 
1847, eighty men were detailed from the United 
States battalion to clean up the plaza of San Luis 
Re,y, containing four acres, and the quarters or court- 
yard, and rooms in the monastery, and make neces- 
sary repairs which were done in good order. The 



commanding officer received the following order from 
Goveinor Mascn, (acting Governor Fremont and ap- 
pointed Governor Kearney having retired.) 

"Should any Catholic priests come to Mission San 
Luis Rey, you will not only cause them to be treated 
with great courtesy and kindness, but they are to 
have any apartments they may desire and any pro- 
duct of the mission for their own use and the entire 
management of the Indians. You are placed in 
charge of the mission property for the express pur- 
pose of guarding it from desecration and waste and 
are expected to tivat the missionaries and Indians 
with great courtesy and respect." 

A copy of the following interesting letter regard- 
ing San Luis Rey is appended in Father Engelhardt's 
History of the JMissions. Governor Mason, Colonel 
First Dragoons, wrote to Captain Hunter Sub-Indian 
Agent : 

"August 2, 1847. 

' ' It must have excited astonishment in both the In- 
dians and missionaries to find themselves treated with 
so much consideration by "los Protestantes, " when 
for a quarter of a century they had experienced 
scarcely anything but arrogance and oppression at 
the hands of the 'household of the Faith' they dis- 
graced." 

That the missionaries accomplished so much in Cal- 
ifornia is cause for wonder in the thoughtful mind. 
Tlfe material structures they raised and encompassed 
by the spiritual forces of love and service guided the 
labor of the missionaries and their converts to as- 
tonishing results. They hewed tall trees with rough 
axes, made adobe, or sun-baked bricks, without num- 
ber, lashed the rafters with i-awhide thongs and 
raised buildings of artistic merit without use of nails 
or modem implements of architecture, carved mold- 
ings and traceries that denoted the individual taste 
of the neophytes, with unskilled hands of former 
wild men and their descendants, in California wild- 
ernesses. 

In the chain of histoi'ie missions of California were 
woven the heroism, energy and pious zeal of the mis- 
sionaries with the spiritual elevation and semi-civili- 



zation of the Indians (arrested by the act of seculari- 
zation) in the eight-five thousand human links of neo- 
phytes dedicated to the Spirit of Religion. Down the 
ages the mild, insistent voices of the teachers echo 
in red men's hearts and in the walls and cloisters of 
their exalted ideals in the monuments we now cherish 
with memories of a patriarchal, poetic past. 




J 











A SOLDIER OF THE CROSS. 



(First Pioneer of California.) 

Junipero, God 's pioneer, behold ! 

On bended knees imploring pardoning grace ; 

He feels himself a failure long untold, 

Entreats and pleads high heaven with saintly face : 

"One baptism — God grant thy servant more, 

Ere sailing from this wild and fruitless shore ! ' ' 

"Just one more day. Father, I humbly pray! 
And must I pray in vain? Thy mercy spare. 
In this forsaken, reckless, heathen sway!" . 
Still on his knees in constant, zealous prayer, 
Till nightfall came and then glory great, 
God's answer came like wondrous story late. 

Across the blue Pacific 's vastness, lo ! 

A ship, like great, white dove with olive branch, 

Up San Diego Bay sailed fair and slow. 

"To God be thanks! Our famine he will stanch. 

One child baptized by me — All Hail Marie ! 

The sacred Cross points e'er my faith in Thee." 




STORY OF JUNIPERO SERRA. 



California, that magic name of mythical romance, 
was given by the courageous explorer Cortez when 
he discovered and claimed this coast for Spain in 
1543. For two centuries California basked under 
a southern sky and the blue waters of the Pacific 
washed its silvery shore, untrod by white men. 

1769 Don Galvez, minister of colonization for Spain, 
arranged an expedition from Loreto in Lower Cali- 
fornia to Upper California, led by Governor Portola 
and soldiers in search of the wonderful harbors 
charted by Cortez and Viscaino, accompanied by the 
eminent engineer Constanso and Father Junipero 
Serra wlio was appointed to establish missions with 
associate friars for the conversion of the heathen in- 
habitants to Christianity. 

This expedition starting at Loreto reached the mag- 
nificient harbor now known as San Francisco after 
great hardships, crossing mud-sinking arroyos, scal- 
ing dizzy heights, climbing scarred and boulder- 
strewn mountains to avoid being washed into the 
ocean,' sleeping under drenching rains and enduring 
thirst with half-rations, they plodded onward with 
the persistency that won victory over great obstacles. 
They were the first white men who traversed these 
smiling lands. 

But alas ! for the hopes of the explorers, their ra- 
tions became nearly exhausted and Governor Portola 
decided to return to Mexico by ship, from the bay 
now known as San Diego, before more of his ninety 
men fell ill with the scurvy, that weakening disease 
caused by the lack of fresh vegetables, and before they 
had reached the limit of their food supply. He ap- 
pointed a day that the ship should sail south, when 
Father Serra, who was camped on the shore of the 
bay near the locality now known as Old Town, San 
Diego, went on board the caravel and begged the 
governor to allow a little more time before sailing, 
hoping the relief ship which Don Galvez had promised 
to send (if they remained in California beyond a 
given date) to them and which was daily expected, 



would appear. Portola was firm in deciding to sail 
at once, having given up hope of the arrival of the 
ship with food supplies. 

Father Serra, whose heart ached with love and 
pity for the savages who thronged around him in 
their ignorance of God and spiritual welfare, spoke 
these memorable words of undying faith and courage 
when he declared : " If every other white man leaves 
this desolate shore, I will stay alone and teach the 
savages to love and worship God." 

' ' Nay, ' ' objected Portola ; " I cannot leave you in 
this wilderness hundreds of miles from ^Mexico and 
civilization, without food or protection, to the mercy 
of these cruel and ignorant savages. ' ' 

Father Serra left the ship and went on shore where 
under the boughs of trees he rang the Spanish bells 
and sang a mass imploring the help of Saint Joseph, 
foster father of Jesus and patron saint of the expe- 
dition, praying for success of his enterprise, the con- 
version of souls. 

On the eventful day before the ship was to sail. 
Father Serra arose at dawn and went forth on a hill- 
top where the presidio afterward was established, fol- 
lowing the example of Jesus in the wilderness, and 
prayed for the coming of the relief ship. Witli the 
cowl of his coarse brown habit thrown back and his 
pale, sensitive face haggard with anxiety and fasting, 
he watched and prayed through the long hours of the 
day. When suddenly, as the curtain of night slowly 
descended over the wild western shore, a ship ap- 
peared sailing slowly up the bay almost like a mirage 
in the sky to his amazed vision. Then again he sank 
on his knees, this time not in supplication to the Most 
High, but in thanksgiving for interceding in behalf 
of his cause. 

That Father Serra remained in California we all 
know, and founded the first mission, San Diego de 
Alcala, in 1769, dedicated to its patron, Saint James 
of Alcala. Happy indeed was he when an Indian 
child was brought to him for baptism, thus protecting 
the babe from the Powers of Evil. Slowly and by 
overcoming the hostility of the natives, he won them 



by love and kinduess to become his pupils in the study 
and practice of religion. He m' as in deed and in 
truth a soldier of the Cross, and first pioneer of Cali- 
fornia, asking no other reward than the satisfaction 
of having saved souls to God. 

ilission San Diego de Alcala was established near 
the bank of the river which derived its name from 
the mission, six miles from the bay of the same name. 
The missionaries were^ stockmen and traders and were 
the first customers of the sailing masters who ventur- 
ed around the howling Horn. 

The church was burnt by hostile Indians who threw 
firebrands on the roof. This edifice was afterward 
rebuilt and the wooden rafters covered with earthern 
tiles invented by one of the missionaries. The latter 
sanctuary- was ninety feet in length and flanked a 
patio, or courtyard, one hundred and sixty feet 
square gurrounded by storehouses, shops and dormi- 
tories, and the remaining space by an adobe wall ten 
feet in height. And two date palms lift their tufted 
heads, like ancient seers over the wrecks of time, 
planted from seeds over one hundred and twenty-five 
rears ago bv the missionaries. 




A WEDDING JOURNEY. 



Among the Missions quaint and olden, 
And riding through the morning golden, 
The governor's stately cavalcade 
Uprode the flowery esplanade. 

At Luis Key's white, cloistered pile, 
With tower like Roman campanile. 
The governor stayed his retinue. 
While soldier guards their cordon drew. 

'Neath high and wide-arched colonnade, 
In gown and cowl the monks arrayed, 
With swinging cross and sandaled feet, 
Walked the meek path of Pride's defeat. 

The priests received with kindly token. 
Disciples meek and gently spoken, 
Doiias and dons with governor grand. 
Brides and captains of noble stand. 

The lovely brides with husbands brave 
Left home and friends northlands to save ; 
Each brought a love-gift to her lord. 
More rare than gems from India's hoard. 

Still northward rode the happy twain; 
The bridegrooms whistling gay refrain : 
Brides lilted songs at candle-light 
And waltzed into the fragrant night. 

Ah ! Ne 'er was wedding journey run 
And drawn to close at set of sun, 
With braver grooms or fairer brides. 
Since Neptune sang the ebbing tides. 

But monks and priests of sacred fonts 
Respond no more to travelers' wants: 
In ruins stand the crumbling walls. 
Of Missions old, once bridal halls. 



STORY OF THE WEDDING JOURNEY. 



At San Diego occiirivd tlie double wedding of Captain 
Roniualdo Pacheco coniandante of Presidio de Mon- 
terey with Seiiorita Carrillo and Lieutenant Agustin 
Vicente Zaniorano with Seiiorita Luisa Arguello, 
daughter of the comandante de Presidio de San Diego. 

The historian Hittell refers to this double wedding 
of officers and daughters of officers as the most im- 
portant social event in California down to the above 
date. 

After the elaborate ceremony of the double wedding 
which Governor Echandia attended as sponsor for 
the bridegrooms and the citizens of the surrounding 
countryside attended as witnesses, followed by a 
week's celebration in prize games, rodeos, balls, din- 
ners and dances, the happy couples rode north to 
^Monterey, over six hundred miles horseback in the 
governor's cavalcade with retainers of leather-jacket- 
ed soldiers, dons and donas from distant haciendas 
who attended the wedding liesta. 

Governor Echandia was traveling to the capital 
to transact official business of the province and his 
company was entertained in the mission establish- 
ments located on the King's Highway and at the ex- 
tensive ranchos, or haciendas, of Don Tomas Yorba 
and Don Antonio Dominguez. The vast Rancho de 
Santa Ana was a grant to an ancestor of the Yorba 
family as a soldier in valiant service to the Spanish 
crown. This extensive rancho con.sisted of leagues 
and leagues of grazing land now known as Orangv^ 
County and other tracts. 

After the fiesta de boda or wedding feast and a 
grand ball attended by hidalgoes, officers and donas 
from distant prcsidics and ranchos, the governor's 
cavalcade again rode north to Rancho de San Pedro, 
the home of Don Antonio Dominguez, occupying 
many leagues north of the Santa Ana River to San 
Pedro Harbor and Santa Monica, also a grant from 
the Spanish crown as reward for bravery in battle. 
Here the festive Spaniards escorted Don and Dona 



Dominguez to their spacious adobe home built around 
a patio, or courtyard, and were entertained with 
lavish hospitality. 

• Money had no value to these overlords in pastoral 
California unless it could be exchanged for silks and 
velvets and other articles of luxury brought in the 
trading-ships from Lima, China and New England. 
There were no shops for barter and sale, but the taste 
for rich and elegant apparel was inherent in the de- 
scendants of Spanish royalty, and in their chivalrous 
and gracious manners were seen a remarkable dignity 
and sense of honor. 

' ' By the beard of the Prophet, ' ' this hair from my 
beard is sufficient guarantee that I shall pay my in- 
debtedness in this bill of goods from your ship," 
quoth a Spanish overlord to a clerk of a Boston trad- 
ing-brig. And the captain of the ship was much 
chargrined and very angry when the clerk told him 
that he had presented a bill of lading to his lordship 
for payment. 

"These Spaniards always pay without being re- 
minded of their obligations, their sense of honor is 
very keen, ' ' reproved the shipmaster sternly. 

"Yes, sir," answered the astonished clerk meekly, 
who thought it merely a matter of business and not 
an insult to present the amount of goods and their 
price to the purchaser. And the values of the vast 
herds of cattle and flocks of sheep were exchanged 
for all those commodities in gratifying a sense for 
articles of luxury. 

At Mission San Luis Rey de Francia the governor's 
cavalcade stopped the first night of the wedding jour- 
ney and the brides and grooms gazed on the placid 
waters of the little San Luis Rey River, and over the 
night's enchanting scenery and the beautiful white 
mission with its Moorish colonnade, Roman tower, 
arched entrance and embrasured facade of the state- 
ly church bathed in the silvery moonlight, a replica 
of ancient Spain. Then repeating el rosario within 
the sanctuary they partook of the generous hospitali- 
ty of the missionaries. 

The brides, of course, were young and beautiful 
with all the fascinations of graceful, smiling seiiori- 



tas. And the bridegrooms as officers of the pompous 
Governor Echandia exliibited the bravery and chival- 
ry typical of their race. 

If some of these ancient live oaks as spectators 
could speak, Avhat tales of naked, creeping, swarm- 
ing, painted savages dancing around their campfires 
and munching acorns ; of courteous, pious missionaries 
in coarse brown habits and leather sandals, erecting 
the Cross and performing the rites of their religion, 
vying with one another in the number of their con- 
verts to Christianity ; of proud and haughty Spanish 
officers and dons contiiniing the customs of Aragon 
and Castile ; of the brisk Americans who had 
no time in their later generation for indulging in 
leisure ceremony, being forever too busy accruing 
accounts and institutions of the present century in 
awarding the gifts of luxury and knowledge to the 
most active in their pursuit. 

San Luis Rey Church with monastery, shops and 
storehouses formed the outside wall and occupied 
about four acres of ground including the plaza, where 
the Indian men had organized a band of forty music- 
ians and gave evening concerts on the plaza. In the 
center of the courtyard a fountain splashed musical- 
ly among the orange trees, perhaps reminding the 
missionaries of old Barcelona or Seville. Olive, pep- 
per, orange, fig and many other varieties of semi- 
tropical fruit and ornamental trees grew in the gar- 
dens in the rear of the Mission buildings and a large 
adobe reservoir contained water for bathing, laundry 
and irrigation purposes. 

In the stately church with ^Moorish facade and 
lofty tower, are shown the artistic taste and execu- 
tive abilit.y of Blather Peiri, one of the most polished, 
cultured and genial of the California missionaries. 
Never shall we view his beautiful Mission with be- 
ing reminded of the story of five hundred of his neo- 
phytes who followed their beloved Father to San 
Diego and begged him to come back, when he de- 
parted from California at the secularization of the 
missions, never to return. And in imagination we 
see the forty Indian musicians drawing sweet sounds 
from their flutes and violins at tlie plaza on moonlight 



evenings in front of the noble church, surrounded 
by an admiring throng of dusky natives and en- 
couraged by the wise and loving Father Peiri. 

And a century later, as we view this ' ' King of Mis- 
sions, " we note with admiration and a sense of awe 
this noble monument erected by unskilled but lov- 
ing hands, and this lofty church, with arched en- 
trance, embrasured walls and two-storied tower, dedi- 
cated to King Luis III, whose ancient grandeur was 
worth.y to stand in a king's honor. 

This King of the Missions, who has been robbed of 
his crown and kingdom, yet wraps his tattered ermine 
robe around him in deserted royalty. 



BELLS OF CAPISTRANO. 



Oh, the bells of Capistraiio 
Swinging low from oaken beams, 
Like the tides adown the Arno, 
Rouse the echoes-bygone dreams. 

Fell the bells with crashing tower, 
When the temblor shook the earth ; 
Then the men in startled terror, 
Fled the church and comrades dearth. 

Yet remained in Capistrano 
Lowly bells on leathern thongs. 
Calling all to paternoster. 
And to pray 'mid dusky throngs. 

Here the padres, hearts to blazon, 
Sowed the seeds of Christian faith, 
Winning souls by gentle suasion, 
Giving love to Master's wraith. 

Over vineyard, grove and meadow 
Flqat the sweet, melodious tones, 
Chiming thanks at twilight's shadow, 
As the plenteous table groans. 

But alas ! The god of Mammon 
Saw afar with envious eye ; 
Seized the wealth like Agamemnon ; 
Drove the monks from labor high. 
Sits, august. Church Capistrano ; 
Greed has chocked her ancient arts. 
Like the weeds in fairest Arno, 
And the love in red men 's hearts. 

Still across the field and fallow. 
Calling, calling far to sea. 
Weirdly echo, soft and mellow, 
Christmas chimes for vou and me. 



STORY OF THE BELLS OF CAPISTRANO. 



The grand ^Mission .San Juan Capistrano, named 
for its patron. Saint John of Capistran, a Franciscan 
bishop and author of note, was built without regard 
to price of land per foot, as it covered several acres 
of ground including the church and courtyard with 
over forty massive arches of the cloister nine paces 
in the base of each arch. The blacksmith, saddlery 
shops, the spinning and weaving rooms for the man- 
ufacture of the blankets, the storehouses for grain, 
olive oil, wheat and fruit, the dwellings of the hun- 
dreds of neophytes, the monastery for the use of the 
missionaries, the guardhouse for the six or eight sol- 
diers, and the stately church, all occupied much space 
in the mission grounds. 

This establishment, like the other missions, was a 
hive of industry during its nine years of building and 
its later prosperity, and was the result of an immense 
amount of labor of the Christianized Indians with the 
actual working instruction and example of the mis- 
sionaries. The square log rafters for the roof of the 
church were hewn on a distant mountain side, then 
blest by the Fathers. The sacred timbers were placed 
on the shoulders of relays of Indians stationed one 
mile apart and never allowed to touch the ground 
during their passage of sixty miles over trackless 
canyons, deep ravines and park-like expanse. What 
more wonderful exhibition of devotion, of the neo- 
phytes to the missionaries and the religion they in- 
culcated, could be asked? 

The constructive ability of the Indians was shown 
when they built seven magniticient domes, or seven- 
vaulted roof, and a bell-tower one hundred and twen- 
ty feet high of stone-masonry following the direction 
and work of the friars. 

But alas! One Sunday morning in 1812, while the 
neophytes were at their devotions, a temblor, or 
earthquake, shook down the lofty tower whicli crash- 
ed through the roof on tlie heads of the worshippers. 
They tied shrieking from the church, all but thirty- 



nine, who were crushed under the heavy mass of 
stone. 

The tower never was rebuilt as the natives held a 
superstition that they had offended God who sent 
this punishment upon them. A lower altitude was 
arranged and the sweet-toned Spanish bells suspend- 
ed by their leather thongs at a lower elevation with 
no danger of further expression of wrath in the for- 
mer manner from the Deity. 

San Juan Capistrano, standing like some patriarch 
by the sea whence all his descendants had deserted 
him or faded into oblivion, has wrapped his ragged 
robes of vine and shrubs around him too august for 
pity. He claims our admiration as we approach this 
stately monument of past devotion and magnificence 
where the missionaries in gown and cowl once paced 
the spacious cloisters in religious meditation. 




SAINT GABRIEL. 



An angel rests on fleecy cloud, 
As sentinel of San Gabriel proud, 
He hears below a thrilling prayer; 
A mother, young, cries her despair. 

' ' Queen of Heaven, Full sad wast thou ; 
Thy Son was brought to Calvary's brow; 
Yet hadst thou Him for many years : — 
Oh, spare my babe my bitter tears!'' 

''San Gabriel, thou priest of heaven, 
I pray thee, Saint, my grief to leaven!"- 
Straight flew the guard on pinions white, 
To gates of heaven with pearly light : 

Saint Gabriel sought at early night 
And told the priest the mother 's plight : 
' ' An earth-child cries for justice due ; 
Saint Gabriel, she calls to you : 

''The governor seeks to take my boy 
And hide him for her soul's annoy, — 
Revenge on her who scorned him while 
His jealous power was full of guile : 

"The Judge his verdict speaks at noon: 
I pray thee reach the Mission soon. 
That husband, wife and little son 
Thou re-unite and the case be won." 

Saint Gabriel flew to his white church : 
The governor 's law was left in the lurch : 
' ' United thou, thy griefs are spared : 
' ' Bless you, my child ! ' ' the Judge declared. 

Saint Gabriel smiled and spread his wings ; 

On pinions wliite his way he sings: 

' ' Glory to God ! Let angels tell ; 

In peace — goodwill, his children dwell." 



STORY OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL TRIAL AT 
MISSION SAN GABRIEL ARCANGEL. 



Mission San Gabriel Arcangel was founded in 1771 
by Fathers Angel Somera and Pedro Cambon and 
was the junction and resting place for travelers pass- 
ing between Monterey and Mexico. 

"The Queen of the Missions" was once very pros- 
perous and was turned into a town, where the neo- 
l)hytes had built streets of adobe dwellings adjoining 
the Mission, when Governor Eclumdia issued the act 
of secularization of the missions in 1833. 

The Mission once controlled hundreds of leagues 
of grazing lands where great herds of cattle, sheep, 
hor.ses and droves of hogs grazed over the vast San 
Bernardino Rancho, an adjunct of the ^Mission. And 
one hundred acres, including the site of the Mission 
buildings, gardens, and vineyards were inclosed by 
hedges of prickly pears, which gave both fruit, and 
protection from hostile Indians. 

Nothing remains of its former greatness but the 
church where religious services are now held. It was 
built of stone, mortar and adobe bricks and the im- 
posing west side wall is supported by ten heavj^ but- 
tresses crowned by a pyramidal coping. This coping 
was capped by an Indian as a penance pronounced 
by one of the Fathers for a misdeed. 

The picturesque tower is a continuation of the side 
wall, pierced by six embrasured bell recesses of dif- 
fering sizes. The centi'al arch is pedimented to a low- 
er angle on the left. This belfry is admired as an 
architectural gem. Its design has been extensively 
reproduced in more modern architecture. 

The old stone stairway, shaded by tlie fern-like 
foliage of the graceful i)epper tree at the right of the 
church leading to tlie choir-gallery, caused our hearts 
to tlirill as we climbed up tlie stone steps worn hol- 
low by the feet of the past worshippers who trod 
these stones, leading to musical elevation of spirit, 
long ago. 

In 1829 a handsome and dashing American sea- 



captain sailed in his trading-brig from Boston to Cali- 
fornia in search of trade and adventure. Being an 
educated and well-bred young man of Puritan ances- 
try and Harvard College degree, he exhibited no 
piratical tendency. He had arrived in the pueblo of 
San Diego only a short time when his patriotic spirit 
nearly entangled him with the suspicions of Governor 
Enchandia whose principal anxiety at that time was 
watching for spies. 

A wealthy and influential European from Mexico 
City with a Spanish wife, a self-appointed pleni- 
potentiary at San Diego, interceded with the irate 
governor in behalf of the American and prevented 
the comandante's wrath from descending on the ad- 
venturous young man's head when he privately as- 
sisted some American prisoners confined in the prison 
of the Presidio to escape. 

At this time Governor Echandia, w^ho resided in 
bachelor quarters in the presidio at San Diego, jour- 
neyed to the capital at Monterey with his officers and 
their brides in his retinue with dons and doiias who 
attended the fiesta of the double wedding with all 
pomp and ceremony of Spanish nobility. 

During the absence of the governor, who secretly 
admired a beautiful seiiorita of San Diego Avho cor- 
dially hated him, the American won the love of the 
governor's undeclared choice. The wedding of the 
couple was interrupted by the arrival of the gover- 
nor's decree issued at Monterey, stating that no for- 
eigner would be allowed to marry in California with- 
out a special license. The couple eloped and sailed 
with a shipmaster and his wife who chaperoned the 
seiiorita. This was done by the advice of the self-ap- 
pointed pleni-potentiary from Mexico City and friend 
of the American in whose ship the couple sailed. Af- 
ter overcoming heavj' obstacles the couple was mar- 
ried in Valparaiso, Chili, witnessed by the shipmas- 
ter friend and his wife. 

The American and his bride then sailed to Boston 
in his brig which was ordered to meet him at Val- 
paraiso. In about a year and a half the American 
with his wife and child sailed for California, thinking 



that Governor Echandia term of office had expired 
and that he had returned to Mexico. 

Echandia retained his office, owing to the non- 
appearance of tlie succeeding governor and to a suc- 
cessicii of intrigues that prevented the present gov- 
ernor from meeting the newly appointed comandante 
and delivering his office, and yet exercised his author- 
ity in the province. He immediately ordered the ar- 
rest of the American, and his lieutenant removed the 
wife from her husband's ship and took her to lodge 
with an American shipmaster's wife, whose dwelling 
was under surveillance of the governor, again separ- 
ating the couple by his jealous and revengeful power. 

Father Jose Sanchez, President of the California 
Missions, denounced Governor Echandia for usurping 
his ecclesiastical authority regarding marriages and 
declared he would arrest the governor, if he were not 
so near the end of his term of office. He counter- 
ordered the arrest of the American, thus removing 
him from the drastic revenge of the jealous governor. 

An ecclesiastical court was held at Mission San 
Gabriel Arcangel by Judge Sanchez, president, of all 
matters relating to the missions and to marriages in 
particular, 

Don Jose Palomares, the government lawyer, found 
all the legal flaws possible. He believed the Ameri- 
can guilty of piratical ofifense in abducting the seii- 
orita who begged her betrothed to run away with her, 
when their wedding was interrupted, and take her 
away from the reach of the hated comandante-gen- 
eral's impending offer of marriage which her parents 
strongly desired. 

At his trial the American plead his own defense 
and, by the evidence of the witnesses present includ- 
ing tlie shii)master in whose brig the run-a-way cou- 
ple sailed, won the case. And the subject of the in- 
ternational marriage was discussed in every family 
in California. 

Judge Sanchez, after presiding three days over the 
sessions of the court, pronounced the wedding certiti- 
cate valid and the vindication of the defendant, witli 
a courtly manner and beneficient aspect, which seem- 



ed to have emanated from a kingly court rather than 
a cloister. 

The Spanish wife of the American was present at 
the trial of her husband and devoutly prayed for 
heavenly intercession to the Madonna whose beauti- 
ful painting with a sweetly maternal expression 
adorned the wall of the sala of the missionaries, used 
as the court room, and to Saint Gabriel, the patron 
saint of the Mission and special messenger of Heaven, 
in behalf of her husband and child. The mental an- 
guish of the husband and wife caused by their separ- 
ation and the impending verdict of perpetual dis- 
grace of themselves and child were averted by the 
righteous judgment of President Sanchez at San 
Gabriel Arcangel, the "Pride of Missions." 

And the happy, reunited couple with their child 
rode away from the buttressed walls of San Gabriel 
with the blessing of the Missionary, like knight and 
lady of medieval times from an ancient Spanish cas- 
tle to their ship in the harbor of San Pedro. 




THE WEDDING BELL GIFT. 



The court in solemn conclave see ! 
Judge Sanchez heard the lawyer's plea: 
"Marriage," he said, "was surely nil: 
Certificate not signed by quill." 

The father rose and plead his case : 

"If wedding then did not take place, 

T 'would sadden life — my heart would sink ; 

— My child's disgrace — Your Honor, think! 

' ' Pray — clemency ! — My witness said ; 

'By Chile's priest he saw us wed:' 

— Your grace I beg — -You 've seen our proof ; 

Grant us our due, Judge, from j^our roof." 

Pondered the judge a weary night ; 
He saw the parents' desperate plight: 
"Before high Heaven I do declare 
You man and wife at Chile fair ! 

"Yet to be sure no flaws are found. 
Certificate — down to the ground, 
I'll marry you, myself, again. 
Next Sunday morn — a liapj^}^ twain, 

' ' But, having scandalized the church 
And left the governor in the lurch, 
I sentence you to buy a bell ; 
Los Angeles needs one, so they tell." 
The captain sailed to Boston town ; 
He brought a bell and saved a frown; 
His wedding bell yet sounds with power, 
In fair Los Angeles parish tower. 



STORY OF THE WEDDING BELL GIFT. 



At the Session of the Ecclesiastical Court in Mission 
San Gabriel in 1831 when the American shipmaster, 
Captain Henry Delano Fitch, was arraigned for trial 
by Governor Echandia because of the said abduction 
of a beautiful senorita admired and secretly loved by 
the governor of California, there being only one law- 
yer in the province, (and he retained by the gover- 
nor,) the American plead his own case. 

We have learned in the storj'- of the Ecclesiastical 
Court that Captain Fitch's honor was vindicated and 
that his wife and child were restored to him and both 
parents were taken back into the church and that the 
impending verdict of illegitimacy of their child was 
averted. 

The flaws found in the wedding certificate by tlie 
government lawyer were that "It contained neither 
the names of the cathedral, nor the city of Valparaiso 
where the wedding took place ; and that it had not 
been "Vised by three escribanos; (examined and 
signed by three notaries) nor had it been signed by 
the minister of foreign affairs." 

In tlie meantime, before the trial and shortly after 
the arrest of Captain Fitch by Governor Echandia 
at Monterey, Don Virmond, the self-appointed pleni- 
potentiar}"- friend of the American, visited Judge 
Sanchez and gave bonds for the appearance of his 
young friend to appear at the ecclesiastical court in 
San Gabriel. And the shipmaster ever afterward 
referred to him as his "Guardian Angel." 

Judge Sanchez rendered his verdict after a session 
of three days by stating that: "The lawyer had not 
substantiated his charge of distinct criminal offense in 
tlie defendant ; that the certificate was not nil but 
valid; and that the couple was legally married at 
Valparaiso. ' ' But to be sure no flaws could be found 
in the wedding certificate, President Sanchez re-mar- 
ried the couple the next Sunday morning and pre- 
sented them with a new certificate containing the 
names of San Gabriel Church and the Province of 
California, and himself signed the document. 



Following the verdict, Judge Sanchez pronounced 
this penance : ' ' On account of the great scandal Don 
Enrique (Henr}') has caused the church, I sentence 
him to bu3^ a bell of not less than fifty pounds weight, 
for the church at Los Angeles which has barely a 
borrowed one from San Gabriel." 

In this manner the wise president secured the first 
bell for the tower of the parish church Nuestra Sefiora 
de la Reina de los Angeles. (Our Lady Queen of the 
Angels.) And all this power and wisdom could not 
be contradicted by Comandante-General Jose Maria 
Echandia, who had interrupted the wedding of the 
couple at San Diego and separated them after their 
elopement and marriage at Valparaiso. 

Captain Fitch sailed to Boston and bought a wed- 
ding-bell gift which on his return to California he 
presented to President Jose Sanchez in gratitude for 
the Judge's pronunciamento in vindication of his 
honor and the restoration of his wife and child to him. 
This bell yet chimes out the vindication of the Ameri- 
can and calls the faithful to worship in the adobe 
church opposite the plaza in Los Angeles. Little did 
Captain Fitch dream that five hundred thousand 
Americans would follow in his footsteps during three- 
quarters of a century later and occupy the City of the 
Angels. And the captain's bell from Boston may 
have sounded a mystic summons to eastern dwellers 
from the restless Atlantic to the shore of the great 
Pacific. 

And never do we pass the old adobe church at Los 
Angeles, founded in 1814, and standing opposite the 
plaza, but we gaze upward to the arched and but- 
tressed tower, upon the first and largest bell wiiich 
was presented by Captain Fitch to the Parish Church 
in the Pueblo of the Angels. 



THE WINEPRESS OF LIFE. 



In ros3^ morn the purple grapes 
Drank sunlight warm — Fernando shapes, 
At eventide the fruit and leaves 
Absorbed the dew in Nature's sheaves: 
Each glowing sphere, a perfect life, 
Accomplished work with ne'er a strife, 
Of Nature's art. 

Came Destiny the reaper stern, 
And gathered grapes, the keepers yearn; 
In Life 's winepress the fruit he cast : 
From out the grinding, seething past. 
Poured liquid rich, the life-blood course, 
Of Universe — emotion's source: 
He saw the signs. 

The friars planted truth and vines, 
And natives gathered fruit and lines; 
In merry glee the}^ ate their fill. 
From Padres' store beside the rill. 
Attended mass and said their prayers. 
To keep away from Devil's snares; 
Saw not the signs. 

"We teach the truth," the Fathers said, 
"Or reap the tares when souls are dead:" 
With tears and laughter, joy and sorrow, 
The vines were trimmed anent the morrow ; 
They danced and sang at the Mission's sid( 
And feared no cloud would e 'er betide ; 
Saw not the signs. 

The reapers came by light of day ; 
Drove the Indians from their work and play 
Seized garnered wealth with greedy hands 
And took away to other lands: 
Sad natives they, their homes foresworn ; 
With idle hands they wept forlorn ; 
Saw now the signs. 



\ 



STORY OF THE SECULARIZATION OF THE 

MISSIONS ILLUSTRATED BY THE 

WINEPRESS OF LIFE. 



In 1797 ]\Iission San Fernando Rey de Espaiia was 
founded by Fathers Dumetz and Lasuen in honor of 
Ferdinand III, King of Spain, in the beautiful valley 
which bears its name, twenty-two miles north of Los 
Angeles, and became one of the most prosperous of 
the missions, rich in grain, cattle and vineyards. 
There were many hundred neophytes living within 
its sheltering walls who were taught agriculture with 
the arts and crafts in connection with lines of relig- 
ious instruction (Catechism). And in the sacred 
ground of the Campo Santo, or Camp of the Saints, 
(cemetaiy between the church and monastary,) rested 
many of their loved ones. 

The vineyards, fields of barley and groves of olives 
made glad the hearts of the neophj^tes who tended 
them carefully, according to the directions of the mis- 
sionaries. And after the labors of the day they as- 
sembled within the lofty church and consecrated 
their hearts anew to loving service of families, friends 
and the good God who gave them this flourishing val- 
ley and fruits of the earth. 

For over thirty years Mission San Fernando Rey 
de Espaiia, with its workshops, its weaving-rooms and 
its storehouses, grew and prospered when, suddenly, 
tlie death-knell of the missions was sounded with the 
hopes of the missionaries, in the proclamation of the 
Act of Secularization of all the missions in California 
by Ex-Governor Echandia who had overstayed his 
term of office and authority and began the act of sec- 
ularization, cr confiscation of the wealth of the mis- 
sions. 

But first the founders and guardians of this wealth 
must be sent awa^' to execute the confiscation with 
more freedom. The hearts of the missionaries must 
have ached for their wards, the neophytes, when they 
realized the tremendous disaster which had overtaken 
them. Some of the friars remained at their posts 



despite civil authority, but were disma^'ed when they 
saw the destruction of the establishments which had 
been the work of years of heroism, energy and self- 
sacrifice to accomplish: 

In 1833 occurred the death of the "Most beloved 
Father, Ex-Presidente Jose Sanchez at San Gabriel, 
of a broken heart, it was said, at sight of the evil 
Governor Echaudia and his followers had brought 
upon the neophytes. They would be turned adrift 
to shift for themselves, without protection and would 
degenerate into barbarism M'ith their wild brethren 
of the hills," thought the missionaries. 

To the neophytes a little liberty proved a danger- 
ous experiment when removed from the necessary 
discipline of the monks. The Indians had not drank 
deeply enough at the Spring of Civilization to con- 
tinue the customs taught and insisted by the Fathers, 
and many forgot to repeat their prayers, but never 
to venerate the Cross whenever it was presented to 
them. 

The regular habits of receiving instruction, w^ork- 
ing at agriculture and arts and crafts were forgotten 
by some, when the matin and vesper bells ceased to 
ring. And the agricultural tools were uncared for 
and covered with rust. The natives had no incentive 
to work, no loving masters to feed and clothe them 
with the results of their labor. All the wealth of 
grain, hides and tallow were taken away and sold for 
a price, or exchanged for goods wanted by the civil- 
ians. The wants of the helpless neophytes were for- 
gotten, or waved aside. And they drifted away like 
autumn leaves and sank into nooks and crannies of 
the earth, cast upon their own resources without the 
comfortable means of livelihood they had enjoyed at 
the missions. 

This noble ruin reminds the sightseer of a once 
happy and flourishing establishment or village over- 
taken by disaster, pillaged and desecrated and the in- 
habitants turned back into the wilderness. 

The long adobe building, yet standing and over- 
looking the fountain and crumbled adobe walls of the 
guardhouse and gardens, lias been restored recently 



with an arched adobe corridor, or colonnade leading 
into the monastery. And a quaint little belfry rises 
like a stumpy chimney from the left end of the arches. 

At the right, beyond the monastery, the roof of the 
lofty church has been restored by the efforts of the 
Landmarks Club of Southern California, in order 
that the winter rains might not penetrate and com- 
plete the ruin of the edifice. Not only herds of cat- 
tle and horses and flocks of sheep were plundered, 
but planks and rafters were taken awa}' by desecrat- 
ing hands, although some interested rider left behind 
him one of his heavy, clanking spurs in the debris of 
the church floor, found l)y a later visitor, a relic of 
the past. 

On tlie left of the high wall in the interior of the 
church, on a recessed arch, I noted the beautiful draw- 
ing of an elliptical arch perfect in its detail ; and I 
wondered if some artist-missionary had climbed a lad- 
der and sketched this drawing as a model for the 
decoration of other wall sections to be executed by 
some ambitious neophyte. 




PAGEANT OF THE NIGHT. 



The starry worlds in vast, unmeasured spaces, 
Assembled nights at their accustomed places; 
The myriad lights all shedding luster golden, 
On purple depths — the curtain's lofty f olden, 
Night drew upon King Phoebus' exit brilliant. 
Beyond the stage of heat and light resilient. 

Then Luna came with silvery attendants, 
Programmed divine in orderly ascendance ; 
Buenaventura witnessed without payment, — 
The march of worlds in gorgeous, golden raiment ; 
The mystic pageant the queen of night illumed, 
With Nature's lamp, the Play of Night resumed. 

Orion fought the bull in glittering tunic: 
The Pleides, in clear, harmonious Runic, 
Enchanting strains inlinked with clashing cymbal : 
The Southern Cross upheld the sacred symbol, 
Of faith sublime and tragedy in duty : 
And Venus bore the cup of love and beauty. 

Oh, mystery of wondrous evolution ! 

A Universe that swings without confusion, — 

In orbits huge, obeys the Master mind. 

With force magnetic of a secret kind. 

That paralyzed man's weakly, boasting voice. 

Proudly proclaimed in egoistic choice ! 

The hierarch, assembled grand in place, 

Notes man a mote in Planetary Space ; 

But Indian souls entered their kingdom yonder 

And viewed the Play with ever grateful wonder ; 

As oceans crashed their symphonies on sounding 

shore : 
And crested waves their white hands clapt a wild 

encore. 



STORY OF THE PAGEANT OF THE NIGHT. 



Mission San Buenaventura was founded in 1782 on 
a bold, rocky shore that opposed the advance of the 
great swells of the Pacific which swirled around the 
Island of San Clemente in the Santa Barbara Chan- 
nel. Here travellers were surprised to see corn and 
vineyards growing at the cliffs edge of San Buena- 
ventura and beyond into tlie canyons of the moun- 
tains. And here the Fathers may have taught first les- 
sons in astronomy to the neophytes and pointed out 
the constellation of Orion who fought the bull. This 
glittering galaxy of stars witli its mystic story may 
have appealed to the imagination of hard-riding va- 
queros who feared no animal they bestrode and train- 
ed from tempestuous freedom to obey the dictator 
with riata, spurs and bridle-curb. 

The pious Fathers may have pointed out to their 
pupils the Southern Cross (if in imagination they 
saw it) and called attention to its sacred symbol, 
stretched across the heavens, for higher meditation 
of the religious emblem so blazoned by the Almighty 
Father on the midnight sky. 

And well might the neophytes have pondered on 
that might.y, insensate force pervading the atmosphere 
, which had wo-itten on a stormy sky in zigzag streaks 
of fiery and frightful significance God's unseen power 
that had been known to strike men and animals down 
at one death-dealing stroke. 

And who could fail to admire the beautiful, full 
moon that lent her luster to lighten the dark earth 
after the brilliant sun had dropped into the ocean at 
the western horizon's rim, leaving a trail of flame and 
orange colors painting tlie evening sk}' and fading 
into exquisite tints of pale violet and delicate hues 
of the pink sea-shell? This lavish and wonderful 
painting was done by the hand of Nature, or Nature 's 
God, in less time than the most ardent nature-lover 
ever could have accomplished. 

All this beauty of the Almighty Father's handi- 
work may have been viewed by the missionaries and 



their wards on the rocky shore in full view of this 
glorious panorama, presented without cost to their 
admiring gaze. Then the souls of the Indians may 
have arisen on the wings of imagination to greater 
heights and mingled with far-distant worlds undis- 
turbed by petty transactions of the day, as the waves 
of the ocean reared their crests and dashed against 
the rocky bluffs in reverberating thunder and broke 
in flecks of white foam far below the watchers on the 
shore now deserted b}^ missionaries and neophytes 
forevermore. 

A town has grown up around the old Mission, which 
has been restored since the earthquake of 1812, and 
bears the name of Ventura, derived from the Padres 
when the United States was seven years of age. 




SPIRIT SWEET WATERS. 



Among the mountains, Santa Ynez gray, 
Sweet waters frolicked, never leashed were they ; 
And Spirit Sweet Waters descended the hills, 
To mingle her freshness with the lower rills. 

At Santa Barbara's quaint Mission old, 
A fountain stood high to receive and hold 
The priceless, pure water so freely sent, 
By Spirit Sweet Water's kind soul intent. 

Two lovers stood near the fountain's broad rim; 
Their eyes were lode-stars — those above were dim : 
' ' A cup of water I give unto thee : 
Let us drink to love by the murmuring sea ! 

"I drink to thine eyes, thou star of my life. 
May they guide me ever away from strife. 
And the music of thy voice, like the mountain rill 
Shall refresh my soul through life's every ill." 




STORY OF SPIRIT SWEET WATERS. 



Mission Santa Barbara was founded in the year 
1786 by Fathers Lasuen, Paterna and Oramus, on a 
shore trending east from the blue Pacific and shel- 
tered on the north and east by the towering Santa 
Ynez Sierra. 

Here the ocean breezes are tempered by a softer air, 
warmed by tlie ardent sun and the verdant valley 
is lapped in the mountain's curving breast. In this 
garden of the Gods, souls might be lulled into dream- 
land on the borders of an unknown and enchanting 
world of delight without fear of being assailed or 
awakened by the rough embraces of more northern 
winds. 

Here tlie missionaries built their beautiful mission, 
the classic facade of whose pilastered church with its 
twin towers and long, arched colonnade stretching 
away from the edifice have been admired by hundreds 
of travelers from distant shores. And the great stone 
fountain, carved in high relief by the unskilled but 
loving hands of neophytes, stands as in earlier years 
holding refreshing mountain water. 

This water was brought in flumes from adjoining 
mountains where it danced swiftly down tlie steep 
slopes in its haste to bless the dwellers in the valley 
with its life-giving strength. There the fairy, Spirit 
Sweet Waters, may have sent tlie liquid freshness to 
benefit earth's children. So from her kind heart she 
murmured to all the little mountain rills to hasten on 
their charitable mission before journeying to mingle 
their freshness with the great ocean. 

And many years later in 1830, Governor Echandia 's 
gay cavalcade, of prancing horses handsomely capar- 
isoned, flashing with silver coins and silver mounted 
bridles and spurs, carrying the haughty governor and 
the officers with their lovely brides, escorted by the 
leather-jacketed soldiers with lances of steel, halted 
at ^Mission Santa Bai-bara and the Missionaries wel- 
comed the governor and invited him into the church 
to attend vesper services while the soldiers drew in- 
to martial lines on either side, through which passed 



the Comandante -General with his officers and their 
brides. 

After the devotions in the church and the lavish 
supper of the missionaries, the officers and brides 
wandered out into the moonlight and stood at the 
fountain's rim. And there the bridegrooms, on their 
wedding journe}^, pledged themselves in a cup of cold 
water (sent b}'' Spirit Sweet Waters) to be guided by 
the musical voices and luminous eyes of their brides 
in lives of unbroken trust and loyalty throughout 
life's journey. 

Mission Santa Barbara was dedicated by the mis- 
sionaries to Saint Barbara, the Virgin and Martyr. 
The imposing stone church is one hundred and sixty- 
five feet in length and forty feet in width. The walls 
are six feet thick, strengthened by buttresses of solid 
stone. And the stone-masonry towers are ten feet 
square, having been given added strength after the 
earthquake of 1812. 

Surrounded by the mission buildings is a fine old 
garden containing rare shrubberies and trees, seques- 
tered from the public gaze. The wife of the Presi- 
dent of the United States is the only lady granted 
admittance to these secluded walks, filled with its 
religious atmosphere, as the meditation grounds of the 
missionaries for over a century of time. 

The picturesque stone fountain in front of the mis- 
sion claimed the loving labor of a sculptor-neophyte. 
How his black eyes must have glowed with the joy of 
decorating this beautiful and necessary concomitant 
of life which held the liquid freshness of the moun- 
tainside. 

Within the church the gorgeous banners of religion, 
the rich vestments, chalices and other sacred vessels 
of the ritual, together with valuable books and records, 
archives of the early history of California, have found 
a secure place of preservation. 

The name of Santa Barbara brings with it a spec- 
ial thought of the dolce-far-niente, dreamland, or 
wave-lapped garden of the Gods, where the sleeping 
beauty yet awaits the coming of the magic Prince. 



SENTINEL OF MONTEREY. 



A cypress leaned far o'er the sea 
And branches shook most threateningly : 
"No nearer come — I guard the Bay, 
Brave sentinel of Monterey ! ' ' 

The breakers roared, the cliffs beyond. 
Sang requiems for souls once fond : 
"We come and go," the white-caps say, 
"To sentinel across the way." 

Still watchful stood for e 'er and aye ; 
Nothing escaped that guardian sway : 
And balmy breaths of cypress trees 
Flung fragrance rare far o'er the seas. 

The briny air and fragrant spice 
Lent wings to thought, in memory's trice, 
To Carmelo, last resting-place, 
Junipero, God's servant of grace. 

Like the Nazarene, that Master mind, 
Blessing his followers in kind, 
Who sued the touch of garments gray. 
Soul-sentinel of Monterev. 




STORY OF THE SENTINEL OF MONTEREY. 



The blue waters of a semi-circular bay with its daz- 
zliug stretch of white sand hiy spread in the embrace 
of a park-like land shaded by groves of live oak when 
Vizcaino, the Spanish explorer sailed up the coast of 
California in 1602 and named the glistening waters 
in honor of Count de Monterey, the viceroy of ]\Iexico. 
Some of the noble live oaks, nearly two hundred feet 
in height and six feet in diameter, were monarchs of 
the land where they seemed to watch for the coming 
of that Spirit of untiring devotion, Father Junipero 
Serra, on the shore where the Pacific ebbs and flows, 
tossing the spray if its waves high op the rocky bluflfs 
and falling in misty spray on the dazzling white sands 
below while above them smiled a sky of Italian depth 
and softness. 

Over the rocky cliff's leaned the fragrant cypress 
trees, holding their wind-swept branches far over the 
bay. in defiance of the western breezes and seeming 
to proclaim themselves guardians of the watery ex- 
panse between the two points of land. 

In 1770, one year after he founded Mission San 
Diego de Alcala, Father Junipero Serra sailed to 
Monterey and founded Mission San Carlos de Rio Car- 
melo, named in honor of its patron, Saint Charles, 
King of Spain, it being situated on the bank of the 
little Carmel River near the protecting bulwark of 
the lofty Santa Lucia Sierra, and named in honor of 
Mount Carmel in the Holy Land which it was said by 
travelers to resemble in beauty of location. 

Father Serra was enchanted with the natural beau- 
ty of j\Ionterey Bay as it lay spread in the protecting 
embrace of the tree-clad hills. Some of these trees 
grew in isolated grandeur surrounded by a flower- 
embroidered carpet of grasses having the effect of 
beautiful parks in ancestral estates rather than a wil- 
derness. 

Nature seemed to have prepared for the coming of 
that Spirit clothed in human flesh ; for never was a' 
man more spiritual and more free from all guile than 
Father Junipero Serra. God seemed to have endowed 



him with all the virtues and scholarly traits and a 
zealous flame of desire to follow the example of Jesus 
of Nazareth in saving souls for spiritual happiness 
after death, shriving himself against all worldly 
thoughts and desires. Always he strove to attain 
spiritual perfection. 

On the lone peak of Father Serra's meek spiritual- 
ity dwelt his intellectual greatness. Had he been a 
governor with civic authority in place of a governor 
of souls, his executive ability would have been known 
in high places. Yet his modest worth will be written 
in history and his intellectual and spiritual attain- 
ments be proclaimed, until a beneficent halo of right- 
fiousness shall surround his name as first and most 
powerful in the annals of California as the years roll 
onward down the scroll of time. Humanity will ac- 
cord this conqueror of a large army of savages a lead- 
er in civilization and Christianity. 

By the force of this great man's piety and com- 
passion for his fellow-beings he established nine mis- 
sions, four presidios, and two pueblos, leaving a peace- 
ful life in a college cloister he loved, to become a sol- 
dier of the Cross. 

After founding his second mission on the Carmel 
River, five miles from the Bay of Monterey, this gen- 
eral of a spiritual army marshaled his followers and 
founded other missions in the wildernesses where the 
savages congregated. San Juan Capistrano, San Ga- 
briel Arcangel, San Buenaventura, San Luis Obispo, 
San Antonio de Padua, Santa Clara and San Fran- 
cisco, where four thousand neophytes were won to 
spiritual attainments while living in these missions. 

As Father Serra chanted his Te Deum in thanks- 
giving for gaining converts from the powers of evil, 
he was the inspiration of every missionary in the pro- 
vince. Footsore and weary he traveled the wilder- 
ness, buoyed up by love and pity for his fellow-crea- 
tures and joy at their deliverance from the power of 
Satan. 

And here in 1830 Governor Echandia led his bril- 
•liant cavalcade in the long procession from Monterey 
to San Carlos de Rio Carmelo, when Missionaries in 
elaborately embroidered robes of the ritual upholding 



MB 10 3. 



the banners of the church, preceded by the Cross- 
bearer and followed by the Governor of the Province 
escorted by haughty dons and beautiful donas from 
distant ranchos with the brides and grooms of the 
double wedding, entered the sanctuary between the 
martial lines of the garrison of Monterey, and cele- 
brated High-lMass in memory of San Carlos, the pat- 
ron saint of the Mission. 

After the celebration, one's imagination yet views 
the brilliant, colorful procession winding its way over 
the pine-clad hills through idyllic paths, returning to 
the capital of IMonterty where a barbecue appeased 
the appetites of riders and pedestrians from San Car- 
los de Rio Carmelo hallowed by its sacrificial and 
poetic memories of the master-spirit who founded 
and maintained this monument to religious devotion. 

In the seventy-first year of his life Father Junipero 
Serra lay dying in his bare cell ; his head supported 
by a devoted neophyte, while lying on two rough 
planks covered with one gray blanket ; he rendered 
up his account as a most faithful steward in the vine- 
yard of souls to the Lord of the Vineyard. 

When the neophytes were told that their beloved 
Father was dead, they Avent into the fields and can- 
yons and gathered flowers as offerings to his memory. 

Comandante, officers, marines, civilians and Indians 
attended the obsequies which were conducted with the 
ceremony given the general of an army. The guns 
of the ships in the harbor were fired at intervals of 
thirty minutes during the day, and their solemn an- 
nouncement was repeated by the Presidio artillery 
and the muffled tolling of the Mission-bells. The for- 
lorn neophytes begged for a shred of his coarse habit 
believing that holiness and healing abided in its folds 
through the prayers of their loving master; even as 
the multitude touched the hem of the garments of 
Jesus and were healed. 

In his most beloved church at Mission San Carlos 
de Rio Carmelo, the official residence of the Mission 
Presidents for fifty years. Father Junipero Serra, 
President and leading spirit in founding the Califor- 
nia Missions was laid to rest beneath the star-shaped 



ii'^> 



carving on the facade which may have been traced m 
remembrance of the Star of Bethlehem and accorded 
with the life of this leading spirit who lead his fol- 
lowers to Jesus. Here the admirer of mental nobility 
approaches with reverent footsteps this artistic and 
venerable monument raised by the Sentmel-Soul of 
Monterey. 




PEONOUNCING GLOSSARY OF SPANISH NAMES. 



Agustin; Ar-hoos-teen. 

Aiyuntiamento; Ar-ce-hoon-tee-ar-men-to, town council. 

Avila ; Ar-veo-ldr. 

Alcalde ; Alcarl-day, overseer, or mayor. 

Alta ; arl-tar, upper. 

Anita; Ar-nee-tar. 

Arguello; Ar-way-yo. 

Arroyo; ar-ro-yo; a small stream. 

Baja; bar-har, lower (California). 

Bandini ; Ban-dee-nee. 

Cahuenga; Car-hoo-ayn-gar. 

Compadre; Com-par-dray, companion. 

Comandante; co-marn-dan-tay. Commander. 

Enrique; En-ree-kay, Henry. 

Bernarciino ; ber-nar-dee-no. 

Benicia ; Bey-nee-cee-ar. 

Boscana, Geronimo; Ha-ro-nee-mo, Bos-car-nar. 

Camino Real; Car-mee-no Raj'-al, King's Highway. 

Campo Santo; carm-po sarn-to, camp of saints, cemetery. 

Carmelo ; car-may-lo. 

Gabriel; gar-bree-el. 

Sierra de Santa Lucia; see-ar-ra day Sarn-tar Loo-cee-ar, San- 
ta Lucia mountains. 

Temblor; temblor, earthquake. 

Jose ; ho-say. 

Juan; hwan, John. 

Lasuen ; lar-so6-en. 

Loma ; 16-mar, hill. 

Majordomo; mar-yor-do-mo, overseer. 

Miguel; Mee-gwayl, Michael. 

Nuestra Seilora; moo-ays-trar Sayn-yo-rar. Our Lady. 

Nuestra Sefiora de la Soledid; noo-ays-trar Sayn-y(5-rar, So- 
lay-dad. 

Nina; neen-yar, girl. 

Padre; par-dray, father. 

Patio; par-tee-o; courtyard. 

Pedro; pay-dro, Peter. 

Portola, Gaspar de; gas-par day por-to-lar. 

Pueblo; poo-ay-blo, small town. 

Paeheco; Par-chay-co. 

Peiri, Antonio ; an-to-nyo, Pay-ee-ree. 

Pio Pico; Pee-yo Pee-co. 

Purisima Conception ; poo-ree-see-mar con-cep-cee-on pure con- 
ception. 

Real; ray-arl, a coin, about twelve cents. 

Riata; re-ar-tar, lasso. 

Rancho; ran-tcho, farm. 

San Antonio de Padua; par-dooar St. Anthony of Padua, 
Franciscan preacher in 13th century. 



San Bias; San Blars. 

San Buenaventura ; bwa-nar-ven-too-rar. Learned Franciscan, 

13th century. 
San Juan Beautista; bow-tees-tar, St. John the Baptist. 
San Carlos de Monterey; St. Charles of Monterey, an Italian 

bishop. 
San Diego de Aleala; dee-ay-go day al-car-lar, St. James of 

Alcala, Spanish Franciscan. 
San Francesco de Asis; fran-cees-co day Ar-sees. St. Francis 

of Assisi, Founder of Order of Franciscan Monks. 
Sotoyomi ; so-to-yo-mee. 
San Francisco Solano; So-lar-no, Franciscan missionary in S. 

America. 
San Gabriel Arcangel; Gar-bree-el ark-aru-yel, St. Gabriel 

Arcangel. 
San Lucas; Loo-kas, St. Luke. 
San Juan Capistrano; warn car-pees-trar-no, St. John of Cap- 

istran, Italian Franciscan, leader in crusades, 15th century. 
San Luis Obispo de Tolosa ; Loo-is 0-bees-po day to-lo-sar, 

Bishop of Toulouse, French Franciscan. 
San Luis Eey de Francia; Loo-is ray day Frarn-cee-ar; King 

of France, crusader of 13th century. 
Mateo; mar-tay-o, Matthew. 

San Miguel Arcangel; Mee-gayl arc arn-yel; St. Michael Ar- 
changel. 
Jose Sanchez; ho-say San-ches. 

Santa Barbara; virgin and martyr of third century. 
Santa Clara de Asis; San-tar Clar-ar day Ar-sees, (Spiritual 

Sister of St. Francis) St. Clare of Assisi, Founder of the 

Order of Franciscan Nuns. 
Santa Cruz; Sarn-tar Kroos, holy cross. 
Santa Ynez; Sarn-tar Ee-nez, child martyr, St. Agnes. 
Santa Lucia; Sarn-tar loo-cee-ar. 
Santa Ysabel; Ees-ar-bel. 
Santiago ; Sarn-tee-ar-go. 
Sepulveda; Say-pool-vay-dar. 
Serra, Junipero; hoo-nee-pay-ro Ser-rar. 
Soledad, So-lay-dard, solitude. 
Valparaiso; Varl-par-rar-ee-so, Vale of Parad'se. 
Vaqueros; Var-kay-ros, Indian cow-boys. 
Vizcaino; Veez-car-ee-no, Spanish employer. 
Vallejo, Mariano Guardalupe; Mar-ree-ar-no war-day-loo-pay, 

Var-yay-ho. 
Vicente; vee-cen-tay. 
Ybarra; ee-bar-rar. 
Ygnacia, Dona; Don-yar ee-n4r-cee-ar. 
Zalvidea ; sarl-vee-day-ar. 









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